editorials
Israel Must Support Ukraine
I srael is under mounting pressure to take a side in
Russia’s war with Ukraine. And the complications
Israel faces are largely of its own making.

From the outset, it seemed natural that Israel
would join Western, democratic nations in support
of a feisty, democratic Ukraine whose much larger
enemy wants to wipe it off the map. But that’s
not what happened. Instead, Israel’s nuanced
responses to the war have disappointed the
Ukrainians, angered the Russians and frustrated
the United States and other Western allies.

Beginning with former Israeli Prime Minister
Naftali Bennett’s quixotic offer to serve as the
mediator of the dispute and continuing with
Israel’s refusal to boycott Russia or to provide
meaningful funding and military assistance to the
Ukrainian army, Israel has been a Western outlier
by failing to join the United States and its allies in
their coordinated response.

Recently, however, following reports that Iran
has started to provide Russia surface-to-sur-
face ballistic missiles in addition to already
deployed attack drones, there has been mount-
ing pressure on Israel to provide Ukraine with
air defense systems and know-how, and even a
call by Israeli government ministers to provide
military assistance to Kyiv. In addition, Ukraine’s
president and prominent U.S. lawmakers have
openly challenged Israel’s public neutrality,
while Russia has warned against a tilt toward
embattled Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was
direct in his challenge: “Isn’t it time for your state
to choose who you are with? [Are you] with the
democratic world, which is fighting side by side
against the existential threat to its existence? Or
with those who turn a blind eye to Russian terror,
even when the cost of continued terror is the com-
plete destruction of global security?”
Similar sentiments were voiced by Sen. Chris
Murphy (D-Conn.), who chairs the Senate sub-
committee dedicated to the Middle East, who told
CNN: “Israel needs to get off the sidelines. ... I just
don’t buy that countries like Israel need to play
both sides. This is a moment where you have to
take a side and you have to stand with the people
of Ukraine.” In response, former Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev warned Israel that if it offered
military assistance to Ukraine, it would seriously
harm relations with Moscow.

Israeli public opinion is decidedly pro-Ukraine.

But Israel’s security establishment sees Russia
and Iran just over Israel’s border in Syria as the
Jewish state’s first priority. Syria is Israel’s tra-
ditional enemy. Iran, which bolsters the Syrian
regime, has vowed to destroy Israel. Russia is
the gatekeeper, supporting Syria, working with
Iran and, by controlling the skies, deciding how
much freedom Israel has to attack the military
buildup on the ground that can threaten Israel.

And some analysts worry that if Israel sends
weapons to Ukraine, Israel could find itself at war
with Russian-backed forces or more sophisticated
Russian air defense systems in Syria.

We don’t minimize these concerns. They are
real. But the escalating death and destruction in
Ukraine demands that Israel do what it can to help
and join with the rest of the Western democratic
world in support of Ukraine. JE
The Blight of Kanye West
Author WENN / WENN English Top Features/Newscom
A ccording to rapper and fashion designer Kanye
West (aka “Ye”), he lost “2 billion dollars in one
day” when Adidas, the Gap and Balenciaga cut ties
with him over a series of very public antisemitic
outbursts last month. On Oct. 8, Ye tweeted that
he was “going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”
and claimed that he is the target of a “Jewish
underground media mafia.”
It might be easy to blame Ye’s outbursts on
his bipolar disorder. But mental illness is not an
excuse for antisemitism. So it’s important that
his business partners recognize the difference
between loose speech that might be tolerated and
hate speech that cannot. Moreover, given West’s
celebrity — he reportedly has more Instagram fol-
lowers than there are Jews in the world — what he
posts on social media makes a difference.

Adidas was West’s biggest business collabora-
tor. His Yeezy clothing line reportedly accounted
for 10% of Adidas’ revenue. Perhaps it was because
of that impact that West boasted on a recent pod-
cast that “I can say antisemitic things and Adidas
can’t drop me.” But he was wrong, even if it took
Adidas several weeks to cut ties with West. Adidas
made the right move. But its dithering gave critics
time to look into the company’s own antisemitic
past, including its Nazi founder and the compa-
ny’s participation in Germany’s World War II war
14 NOVEMBER 3, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
The world needs to block
Kanye West on social
media, and those drawn
to his music should
explore other talent.

effort. Today’s Adidas is not a Nazi company. And
what Adidas was 75 years ago should not distract
us from West’s outrages today.

Vogue magazine also cut ties with West. As
did JPMorgan Chase, the CAA talent agency
and MRC film and TV studio, which announced
it would not distribute a completed documentary
about West. And lest anyone think the whole ugly
episode was another celebrity melodrama that
will soon be forgotten, a group of white suprema-
cists made sure it would not, when they stood on
an overpass above a Los Angeles freeway with a
banner that read “Kanye is right about the Jews”
and gave the Nazi salute.

In the crisis overload of the last few years, it
is easy to forget that Jews are a small minority
in this country. Growing antisemitism and the
increasing willingness of some to act on their hate
leaves us all vulnerable. We welcome all attempts
to address the problem. One was provided last
week by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who
introduced a spoof product to cure antisemitism
called, “Yentanyl” — a mashup of “yenta” and the
narcotic fentanyl. If only the curse of antisemitism
could be addressed in pill form.

On a more serious note, Rabbi David Wolpe
published a piece in Sapir Journal, arguing that
Judaism “teaches us how we can grow past and
heal the cleavages rending our culture.” Wolpe
didn’t mention West, but his message about the
importance of engagement and conciliation and
the process of teshuvah/repentance reminds us
that reconciliation must be an intentional, mutual
effort. West is unrepentant and appears to have no
interest in reconciliation. He deserves to be
shunned. The world needs to block Kanye West
on social media, and those drawn to his music
should explore other talent. JE



opinions & letters
Why I Wouldn’t Sign the
Petition to Cancel Kanye
BY REBECCA SUGAR
T he Change.org petition calling on Adidas to
cancel its partnership with Kanye West (aka
“Ye”) fl ooded my inbox and social media feeds a
few days ago. Many of my Jewish friends, outraged
by Ye’s recent antisemitic comments, were rightly
upset and wanted to do something.

But they shouldn’t have done this.

Summoning corporate America to punish those
with disfavored views is a dangerous idea, espe-
cially for Jews. It leads to bans on ice cream
sales on the “bad” side of Israel’s “Green Line”
and the cancellation of Zionist and conservative
speakers who say the “wrong” things. Jews
should trust CEOs and international corporations
to adjudicate socially acceptable discourse and
mete out consequences only slightly more than
they trust the media, humanities departments
and the United Nations to do the same.

Over-investing in Jewish celebrities and
their “allies” who have selective antisemitism
antennae and have made this cancellation cam-
paign their passion project is also ill-advised.

Welcoming their support is one thing. Harnessing
their power to infl uence companies to penalize
those we fi nd reprehensible is another. Once we
give them that power, we can’t control how they
use it or to what ideological ends.

Ultimately, we have to accept that Ye has a
right to say absurd things about the Jews. And
we have the right to point out how absurd he
is in doing so. He isn’t even creative enough to
come up with an original scapegoat for his frus-
trations. Ilhan Omar, Bella Hadid, Louis Farrakhan
and a long list of others have walked the same
tired Jew-bashing path before him. If his creative
juices are that diminished, perhaps his Adidas
line wasn’t worth buying anyway.

That is how free speech and free markets are
supposed to work. The people refuse to buy
the bigot’s narrative and his $300 shoes, thus
diminishing the power of his toxic message.

Companies respond to people’s spending habits,
not their personal sentiments. The job of those
“fi ghting antisemitism” is to persuade people
with a fl ood of rational speech that counters the
irrational rant of a guy with a gripe.

Ye has surely been silenced and attacked for
his past political views by media executives,
some of whom were Jews. But that kind of cor-
rupt manipulation is motivated by profi t, fear,
ideological fervor and partisan commitment, not
Judaism. The hope is that if enough people reinforce
the idea that stereotyping Jews is a technique
utilized by the aggrieved, the majority will reject
it. It may not be as gratifying as getting a con-
tract canceled, but legitimizing the corporate
cancellation tactic simply because we feel we
have a legitimate target is short-sighted at best.

It never stops at “legitimate” targets, and it often
overlooks inconvenient ones. That is never good
for the Jews. JE
Rebecca Sugar is a freelance writer and philan-
thropic consultant in New York.

letters Column Blurred Distinctions
Ian Haworth is confused (“Both the Left and the
Right Have Turned on Jews,” Oct. 20).

First, to cherry-pick several really poor and
misleading examples to prove the point that no
one in America cares about the Jews is just out of
step. And Haworth provides no substantiation for
the claim that there is no political home for Jews in
America. There are, indeed, too many loose lips,
crazies and haters (especially white supremacists)
in America (and around the world), but Jews are
not the only people that are targets of their vitriol.

What is seriously missing from Haworth’s op-ed
is any attempt to separate the Jewish people and
the state of Israel’s right to exist and fl ourish from
the actions of the Israeli government and radical
West Bank settlers.

Many leading Jews in America have, perhaps
purposefully, also blurred this distinction. But
many Jews and non-Jews in America have distin-
guished love of country and Jews in general from
some of the things the government of Israel has
done. Mark Twain perhaps said it best: “Patriotism
is supporting your country all the time, and your
government when it deserves it.”
The continued presence of the hawk Netanyahu
among Israel’s top leaders does not help matters
any, nor does Israel’s lack of full support for
Ukraine in its fi ght against Russia. JE
Frank L. Friedman, Philadelphia
Kanye West
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